The King cake

"La Galette des Rois"
French C1 writing exercise

Learn about the tradition around King cake.

Pay attention to the hints!

Some vocabulary you may want to look up before or during this exercise: "the King cake (France)", "young and old alike", "to flock to", "originally (origin)", "the Epiphany", "Christian (adj.)", "commemorate", "the three Wise Men", "anyone [does]", "a protocol", "to name out loud", "suspense", "a tasting", "whoever [does]", "to be crowned".

I’ll give you some sentences to translate into French

  • I’ll show you where you make mistakes
  • I’ll keep track of what you need to practise
  • Change my choices if you want
Start the exercise
How the test works

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Have you ever heard of the famous King cake? At the start of the year, young and old alike flock to every bakery in France to buy their delicious cake, which originally celebrated the Epiphany. This Christian holiday, which commemorates the three Wise Men visiting Jesus, is celebrated about twelve days after Christmas, around January 6th. But before anyone can eat a slice of galette, there is a whole protocol to follow! First, the galette must be cut into equal pieces while, of course, avoiding the lucky charm hidden inside the pastry. The youngest guest then has to go under the table, (from) where he or she will name out loud each person, who will then be given a piece of galette. The more guests there are, the tinier the pieces of cake are, which only adds more suspense to the tasting! Whoever finds the lucky charm while eating the galette, tradition has it that he or she is crowned king or queen for the day!

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